LOGICAL,MORPHEMIC and ORAL SEQUENCING IN TURKISH YUKSEL GOKNEL
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Transcript of LOGICAL,MORPHEMIC and ORAL SEQUENCING IN TURKISH YUKSEL GOKNEL
LOGICAL, MORPHEMIC and
ORAL SEQUENCING in TURKISH
YÜKSEL GÖKNEL
2013
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
2
LOGICAL, MORPHEMIC, AND ORAL SEQUENCING
IN TURKISH
Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker in their books assert that the human
mind has an inborn logical ability which seperates a body of thought (a
sentence) into two parts to produce sentences. A person thinks logically that
a sentence should be about something or someone, and uses them as
subjects, and uses all the information given about the subjects as predi-
cates.
Chomsky calls them Nominal Phrase and Verbal Phrase, in short "NP +
VP". Additionally, the predicate part (VP) is also logically seperated into two
parts as a verb, and an object 'V + NP'. These logical storages are empty
before one starts learning his/her native language. When someone starts
hearing the sounds of his language, he loads these sounds with meaning,
and inserts them into these empty logical storages. Arranging these
storages in succession is also learned while someone is being exposed to
his native language. Therefore, the order of the logical storages change from
language to language. These logical storages, and their learned succession
are called the logical sequence of a sentence. The so called storages are
also flexible enough to hold the shortest and the longest language units.
The word verb "V" covers a verb root, a verb stem, or a verb frame, and
all the inflectional suffixes attached to them such as "ed", "ing", "s", and
auxiliary verbs such as "must", "may", "might", "can", "could", etc. preceded
by them. The verbs together with these inflectional suffixes and auxiliary
verbs constitude a verb composition concept and called a verb "V".
All subjects and objects, whether long or short, are Nominal Phrases. If a
verb is intransitive, it does not need an object (NP), so the predicate part
has only a verb, and some adverbs or adverbials. The predicates that have
"be" verbs are also considered Verbal Phrases.
The sentences described above are of three kinds:
1. A subject, a transitive verb, and an object: Jack killed a mouse. subj V obj (NP)
NP VP
2. A subject and an intransitive verb: Jack sleeps. subj V
NP VP
3. A subject and a "be" complement: Jack is brave. subj V
NP VP
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
3
Although these logical storages are inborn, their sequencing is learned
through the experiences of an individual. Therefore, the sequencing of the
subject and predicate, and that of the subject, verb, and object change
from language to language. For instance in English:
I am coming. Subj (NP) pred (VP)
(There are no personal suffixes attached to verbs in English.)
In Turkish: Geliyor – um (ge*li*yo*rum) V subj (NP)
In Turkish, a personal concept is expressed by a personal suffix either
attached to a verb at the end of a sentence, or expressed by both a pronoun
in the beginning and a suffix at the end of a sentence. Using personal
suffixes attached to the ends of the Turkish sentences (except for the third
person singular) is a grammatical necessity.
Furthermore, the subject, verb, and object sequence of the English
language differs in Turkish as subject (pronoun), object, verb, subject
(suffix); or object, verb, subject (suffix):
English: We are picking flowers. subj (pron) V obj
Turkish 1: Biz çiçek topluyor-uz. = We are picking flowers. subj (pron) obj V-subj (suffix)
Turkish 2: Çiçek topluyor-uz. = We are picking flowers. obj V-subj (suffix)
The reason why there may be two identical alternative sentences in Turkish
is that one should compulsorily use a personal suffix attached to the verb
in a sentence, but if he wants to emphasize the subject, he could also use a
pronoun in the beginning of a sentence as well as a personal suffix
representing the pronoun at the end.
If we use a sentence without a personal suffix, the sentence becomes
ungrammatical although it is understandable:
*Ben yarın Ankara'ya gidiyor. (ungrammatical)
(Ben) yarın Ankara'ya gidiyor-um. (grammatical) (“Ben” could be ignored.)
*Ben sen-i seviyor. (ungrammatical)
(Ben) sen-i veviyor-um. (grammatical) (“Ben” could be ignored.)
As a general syllabication rule in Turkish, the single underlined conso-
nants of the words or allomorphs detach from their syllables, and attach to
the first vowels of the following morphemes as in the examples above. This
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
4
operation of the oral sequence of the Turkish language reorganizes the
morphemic sequence to produce harmonic syllable sequences. The lines
that are put under the consonants are not used in writing.
One could estimate that there exist empty inborn logical subject-predicate,
and subject-verb-object storages in one's mind ready to be filled with the
learned sequences of phonemes and morphemes in a newborn baby. A
newborn baby hears the sounds of his/her native language, learns which
sounds convey which words and morphemes. He/she also hears the se-
quences of subject-predicate, and subject-verb-object, and the syllables
of his/her native language. All these sounds and information gather in its
memory, and are inserted into the inborn storages to produce sensible
sentences.
All human beings are born eager to learn. Learning his/her language is an
inherent instinct in everybody, which Steven Pinker calls it "Language Ins-
tinct". Children do not know what a subject, or an object is, but as soon as
they learn the interrogative concepts “who?”, “what?”, “when?”, ”where?”,
“why?”, “how?”, etc., they start asking questions. In all languages, question
words ask for the essential parts of a sentence such as “subject”, “object”,
and “adverbs of time, place, reason”, etc. So, he logically knows that “who”
and “what” asks for the subject, and “whom” and “what” asks for the object,
and he also understands that all the answers to the questions “who”, and
“what” are subjects, and “whom”, and “what” are the objects. For instance:
Jack found a watch. who what
Jack’s sister found a watch. who what
The boy who was walking along the street found a watch. who what
The boy who was walking along the street found the watch that I lost. who what
Jack saw a rabbit in the garden yesterday. who what where when
The house that Jack built collapsed suddenly last night. what how when
Jack found a watch while he was walking down the streed. who what when
Jack passed his examination with difficulty because he was lazy. who what how why
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
5
Jack saw Mary among the crowd. who whom where
Jack bought some flowers for his mother. who what for whom
Jack was coming from school. who from where
The parts that are not underlined in the sentences above are verbs. If
someone wants to ask about these verbs he says, “What did jack do?”, and
for the underlined parts he says, “From where was Jack coming?”, “Where
was Jack coming from?”, “Whom did Jack see?”, etc.
Consequently, it is possible to say that a person fills the subject and predi-
cate logical storages using interrogative instruments.
As in all natural languages, the Turkish language production system governs
three groups of sequences. The first sequence is the logical sequence
which governs the basic network of a sentence in which all sentences take
form.
The second sequence is the morphemic sequence which arranges the se-
quence of the morphemes, and allomorphs in the Turkish words.
The third sequence is the oral or phonological sequence, which arranges
the syllables and the overall harmony of the words in a sentence.
THE TURKISH GRAMMAR After the above short survey of the universal Transformational Generative
Grammar (with some interpretations of my own), we can begin with the
sound system of The Turkish language.
Turkish has 29 letters in its alphabet. Some of these letters / o, u, a, ı / and /
ö, ü, e, i / are vowels (ünlüler), and the others / b, c, ç, d, f, g, ğ, h, j, k, l,
m, n, p, r, s, ş, t, v, y, z / are consonants (ünsüzler).
All the letters above represent phonemes, that is why they are shown be-
tween “/ /” signs. Phonemics is not interested in detailed phonetic differ-
ences. Some of the vowels / ı, ö, ü / do not exist in English. They are pro-
nounced: /ı/ as in English “again”; /ö/ as in German “schön”; and /ü/ as in
German “hütte” respectively.
Among the consonants, there are the / ç, ş, ğ / phonemes, which are pro-
nounced as “ch” as in “church”, “sh” as in “fish”; and to produce the /ğ/
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
6
phoneme, which does not exist in English, first produce /g/ phoneme, and
make it longer by letting your breath pass between your tongue and the hard
palate of your mouth while vibrating your vocal cords.
THE VOWEL AND CONSONANT HARMONY IN TURKISH
Turkish is said to be an agglutinative language, which means that suffixes
are attached to word roots or stems one following the other in a sequence to
arrange words. To understand how these suffix chains are arranged, one
should understand the vowel and consonant harmony rules of the Turkish
language before one begins to attach suffixes to roots or stems, and to the
suffixes following them.
THE VOWEL HARMONY SEQUENCE A Turkish speaker follows two certain harmony chains to produce a vowel
harmony sequence: 1. The hard vowel harmony chain. 2. The thin vowel harmony chain.
1. The hard (back) vowel harmony chain is “o ⟶ u ⟶ a ⇄ ı”
2. The thin (front) vowel harmony chain is “ö ⟶ ü ⟶ e ⇄ i”
In both chains, the first vowels /o/ and /ö/ never repeat themselves. The
other vowels can be repeated as many times as necessary. The arrow (→)
points to the vowel that will follow the previous one. The arrows (⇄), pointing
to both directions, show that /i/ may follow /e/, or /e/ may follow /i/. In the
hard vowel harmony chain, /a/ and /ı/ do the same. Furthermore, besides the
arrows, the letters “r” are put under repeatable vowels to complete our
diagrams:
1. The hard (back) vowel harmony chain: “o ⟶ ur ⟶ ar ⇄ ır”
2. The thin (front) vowel harmony chain: “ö ⟶ ür ⟶ er ⇄ ir”
As one could see, the two diagrams look exactly like one another. All the
words in the Turkish language follow either the first or the second harmony
sequences. The words borrowed from other languages do not follow these
sequences as expected, but the suffixes that attach to them follow the
vowels of the last syllables of such words. Consequently, one could build
up meaningless chains made up of only vowels following the two vowel
chains:
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
7
“o*u*u*a*ı*a*ı”, “o*a*ı*a”, “ü*ü*e*e*i”, “ö*e*i*e”, "ö*ü*ü*ü", "o*a"
For instance:
“kom*şu*ya” (o*u*a); “kom*şu*lar*dan” (o*u*a*a); “ge*le*cek*ler” (e*e*e*e);
“o*luş*tur*duk*la*rı*mız*dan” (o*u*u*u*a*ı*ı*a); “u*nu*ta*lım” (u*u*a*ı);
“o*ku*la” (o*u*a); “ten*ce*re*ye” (e*e*e*e); “ka*ça*ma*ya*cak” (a*a*a*a*a)
One could make up Turkish meaningless vowel chains as many as one
wishes using the above vowel chains. I advise those who are interested in
learning Turkish to make up vowel chains like the chains above, and repeat
them loudly again and again. In doing so, they can memorize the Turkish
vowel harmony sequences easily and soundly as they learn a piece of
music. When they repeat them, they may even feel and sound as if they
were speaking Turkish.
As it has already been stated, borrowed words do not follow the vowel
harmony sequences, but the last syllables of such words are attached to
suffixes in accordance with the vowel and consonant harmony rules:
patates-ler-i (pa*ta*tes*le*ri) “the potatoes”; televizyon-u
(te*le*viz*yo*nu) “the television”; mandalina-/y/ı (man*da*li*
na*yı) “the tangerine”; sigara-/y/ı (si*ga*ra*yı) “the cigarette”.
The /y/ phonemes used above are glides (semivowels) (consonants)
inserted between two vowels to help them to pass the voice from one vowel
to the following one smoothly and harmoniously. They do not carry meaning.
One more thing to add to the explanation above is that the words that are
formed of two separate words do not follow the above vowel harmony se-
quences:
kahverengi (kahve + rengi) “brown”; buzdolabı (buz + dolabı) “refrige-
rator”; bilgisayar (bilgi + sayar) “computer”; tavanarası (tavan + arası)
“attic”.
Besides the vowel harmony rules above, there are three more essential
vowel rules to consider:
1. The verbs ending with vowels drop these vowels when they attach to the
allomorphs of [İ.YOR]. These vowels are double underlined. Besides the
double underlimed vowels, there are some consonants that are single un-
derlined which show that they detach from their syllables and attach to the
first vowels of the following allomorphs to produce new syllables.
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
8
Bekle-i.yor → (bek*li*yor); başla-ı.yor → (baş*lı*yor); anla-ı.yor → (an*lı*yor);
gizle-i.yor → (giz*li*yor); oku-u.yor → (o*ku*yor); atla-ı.yor → (at*lı*yor)
ye-i.yor → (yi*yor); gözle-ü.yor → (göz*lü*yor); gizle-i.yor → (giz*li*yor)
Gel-i.yor-um → (ge*li*yo*rum); yüz-ü.yor-uz → (yü*zü*yo*ruz); iç-er-im →
(i*çe*rim); yaz-a.cak-ım → (ya*za*ca*ğım); yakalan-a.cak-ız → (ya*ka*la*-
na*ca*ğız); gül-er-im → (gü*le*rim); kork-ar-ız → (kor*ka*rız)
2. When the last syllables of the nouns (including the infinitives), the verbs,
and the inflectional morphemes end with vowels, and the first vowels of the
following allomorphs start with the same vowels, these two vowels combine
and are articulated as a single vowel. For example, when the last vowel of
the word “anne” and the first vowel of the allomorph “em” happen to be
articulated together, they combine and are articulated as a single vowel:
“anne-em” → (an*nem):
anne-en (an*nen); tarla-am (tar*lam); araba-an.ız (a*ra*ba*nız);
kafa-an (ka*fan); git-ti-in (git*tin); bekle-di-ik (bek*le*dik); gül-dü-
ük (gül*dük); yakala-dı-ım (ya*ka*la*dım); git-me-em (git*mem);
çalış-ma-am (ça*lış*mam); temizle-en-mek (te*miz*len*mek); Dinle-er
mi-sin? (din*ler / mi*sin); ol-sa-am (ol*sam), bil-se-em (bil*sem)
If the last vowel of a word and the first vowel of an allomorph happen to be
different, these two vowels are generally linked by the /y/ glides:
oku-ma-/y/ız (o*ku*ma*yız); gel-me-/y/iz (gel*me*yiz); tava-/y/a → (ta*va*ya)
THE CONSONANT HARMONY SEQUENCE
Consonants are grouped into two subdivisions:
voiced consonants: / b, c, d, g, ğ, j, y, l, m, n, r, v, z /
unvoiced consonants: / ç, f, k, p, s, ş, t /
The voiced consonants are the phonemes that are produced by vibrating
the vocal cords while the breath is passing through the throat. To under-
stand the voiced and unvoiced difference, first produce the /v/ phoneme,
which vibrates the vocal cords in your throat, and then, without changing the
position of your teeth and lips, produce the same sound without vibrating the
vocal cords to produce the unvoiced /f/ phoneme. In doing this, you feel no
vibration in your throat. The consonants that vibrate the vocal cords are
named voiced consonants; the unvoiced consonants do not vibrate
them. By the way, one should keep in mind that all vowels and voiced con-
sonants vibrate the vocal cords. The vowels and the voiced consonants,
which vibrate the vocal cords, are called vocals. Only the unvoiced con-
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
9
sonants do not vibrate them. In Turkish, the voiced consonants are called
"yumuşak (sedalı) ünsüzler", and the unvoiced consonants are called
"sert ünsüzler".
The /p/, /ç/, /k/, /t/ unvoiced consonants change into their voiced counter-
parts /b/, /c/, /ğ/, /d/ when they detach from their syllables and attach to the
first vowels of the [i, ı, ü, u], or [e, a] allomorphs:
/p/ changes into /b/: kitap-ı, kitap-a (ki*ta*bı, ki*ta*ba), sebep-i, sebep-e
(se*be*bi, se*be*be), kebap-ı, kebap-a (ke*ba*bı, ke*ba*ba), çorap-ı,
çorap-a (ço*ra*bı, ço*ra*ba), dolap-ı (do*la*bı, do*la*ba), şarap-ı, şarap-a
(şa*ra*bı, şa*ra*ba), hesap-ı, hesap-a (he*sa:*bı, he*sa:*ba).
/ç/ changes into /c/: ağaç-ı, ağaç-a (a*ğa*cı, a*ğa*ca), sayaç-ı, sayaç-a
(sa*ya*cı, sa*ya*ca), amaç-ı, amaç-a (a*ma*cı, a*ma*ca), ayraç-ı, ayraç-a
(ay*ra*cı, ay*ra*ca), demeç-i, demeç-e (de*me*ci, de*me*ce).
/k/ changes into /ğ/: sokak-ı, sokak-a (so*ka*ğı, so*ka*ğa), tabak-ı, tabak-a
(ta*ba*ğı, ta*ba*ğa), kürek-i, kürek-e (kü*re*ği, kü*re*ğe), bebek-i, bebek-e
(be*be*ği, be*be*ğe), köpek-i, köpek-e (kö*pe*ği, kö*pe*ğe), ayak-ı, ayak-a
(a*ya*ğı, a*ya*ğa), bardak-ı, bardak-a (bar*da*ğı, bar*da*ğa).
/t/ changes into /d/: adet-i, adet-e (a*de*di, a*de*de), kanat-ı, kanat-a (ka*-
na*dı, ka*na*da), umut-u, umut-a (u*mu:*du, u*mu:*da), yoğurt-u, yoğurt-a
(yo*ğur*du, yo*ğur*da). As an exception: sepet-i, sepet-e (se*pe*ti, se*pe*-
te), nöbet-i, nöbet-e (nö*be*ti, nö*be*te).
When the nouns or pronouns ending with /p, t, k, ç/ consonants detach from
their syllables and attach to the first vowels of the [in, ın, ün, un] allomorphs,
their last consonants /p, t, k, ç/ change into their voiced counterparts
/b, d, ğ, c/ respectively.
kitap-ın (ki*ta*bın), sebep-in (se*be*bin), kebap-ın (ke*ba*bın), çorap-ın
(ço*ra*bın), ağaç-ın (a*ğa*cın), amaç-ın (a*ma*cın), sokak-ın (so*ka*ğın),
kürek-in (kü*re*ğin), bebek-in (be*be*ğin), ayak-ın (a*ya*ğın), kanat-ın
(ka*na*dın), yoğurt-un (yo*ğur*dun).
Some /t/ phonemes, however, do not change:
hayat (ha*ya:*tı), (ha*ya:*ta), (ha*ya:*tın); sanat (san*a*tı), (san*a*ta),
(san*a*tın); sıfat (sı*fa*tı), (sı*fa*ta), (sı*fa*tın); saat (sa*a*ti), (sa*a*te),
sa*a*tin); sepet (se*pe*ti), (se*pe*te), (se*pe*tin); gölet (gö*le*ti),
(gö*le*te), (gö*le*tin); demet (de*me*ti), (de*me*te), (de*me*tin).
The monosyllabic noun roots ending with unvoiced consonants do not
change when they get the [İ], [E], [DE], [DEN] and the personal morphemes
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
10
ek (eki, eke, ekte, ekten, ekin); sap (sapı, sapa, sapta, saptan, sapın); ip
(ipi, ipe, ipte, ipten, ipin); hap (hapı, hapa, hapta, haptan, hapın); tüp (tüpü,
tüpe, tüpte, tüpten, tüpün); top (topu, topa, topta, toptan, topun); saç (saçı,
saça, saçta, şaçtan, saçın); iç (içi, içe, içte, içten, için); göç (göçü, göçe,
göçte, göçten, göçün); maç (maçı, maça, maçta, maçtan, maçın); kök
(kökü, köke, kökte, kökten, kökün); ok (oku, oka, okta, oktan, okun ), yük
(yükü, yüke, yükte, yükten, yükün); kürk (kürkü, kürke, kürkte, kürkün); Türk
(Türk’ü, Türk’e, Türk’te, Türk’ten, Türk’ün); at (atı, ata, atta, attan, atın); et
(eti, ete, ette, etten, etin); süt (sütü, süte, sütte, sütten, sütün); ot (otu, ota,
otta, ottan, otun); kart (kartı, karta, kartta, karttan, kartın).
However, the final consonants of some monosyllabic nouns do change
when they are attached only to [i, ı, ü, u], [e, a] and [in, ın, ün, un] allo-
morphs. They do not change when they are attached to the allomorphs of
the morphemes of [DE] and [DEN]:
but (budu, buda, budun, butta, buttan); dip (dibi, dibe, dibin, dipte, dipten);
çok (çoğu, çoğa, çoğun, çokta, çoktan); gök (göğü, göğe, göğün, gökte,
gökten); kap (kabı, kaba, kabın, kapta, kaptan); uç (ucu, uca, ucun, uçta,
uçtan); yurt (yurdu, yurda, yurdun, yurtta, yurttan); kurt (kurdu, kurda,
kurdun, kurtta, kurttan); tat (tadı, tada, tadın, tatta, tattan).
When [İ] or [E] morphemes come after the nouns ending with vowels, the /y/
linking semivowels (glides) are inserted between these two vowels to pro-
vide a harmonious link:
Testi (tes*ti*/y/i, tes*ti*/y/e); araba (a*ra*ba*/y/ı, a*ra*ba*/y/a); tarla (tar*-
la*/y/ı, tar*la*/y/a); salata (sa*la*ta*/y/ı, sa*la*ta*/y/a); martı (mar*tı*/y/ı,
mar*tı*/y/a); tava (ta*va*/y/ı, ta*va*/y/a); teneke (te*ne*ke*/y/i, te*ne*ke-
*/y/e); makara (ma*ka*ra*/y/ı, ma*ka*ra*/y/a); kundura (kun*du*ra*/y/ı,
kun*du*ra*/y/a); kafa (ka*fa*/y/ı, ka*fa*/y/a); su (su*/y/u, su*/y/a).
When the nouns ending with vowels are attached to the possessor per-
sonal allomorphs of [İN], ♫ [in, ın, ün, un], which are used in the “pos-
sessor” parts of the noun compounds, the /n/ glides are inserted between
the two vowels such as:
araba-/n/ın ⟶ (a*ra*ba*nın)
testi-/n/in ⟶ (tes*ti*nin)
ordu-/n/un ⟶ (or*du*nun)
öykü-/n/ün ⟶ (öy*kü*nün)
sergi-/n/in ⟶ (ser*gi*nin)
kafa-/n/ın ⟶ (ka*fa*nın)
Logical, Morphemic and Oral Sequencing in Turkish
11
makara-/n/ın ⟶ (ma*ka*ra*nın)
martı-/n/ın ⟶ (mar*tı*nın)
However, when pronouns are used in the possessor position, they are suf-
fixed by the [im, in, un, im, in, ın] allomorphs:
ben-im (be*nim), sen-in (se*nin), o/n/-un (o*/n/un), biz-im (bi*zim), siz-in (si*zin), o/n/-lar-ın (o/n/*la*rın)
Note: The single underlined consonants in the examples above show the consonants that detach from their syllables, and attach to the first vowels of the following allomorphs while the syllabication process is going on. Exception: su (su*/y/un). Example: (a*ra*ba*/n/ın / hı*zı), (su*/y/un / hı*zı) Look for the full version "TURKISH GRAMMAR UPDATED ACADEMIC EDITION YÜKSEL GÖKNEL May 2013" in your browser.
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